Talia stared into the mirror.
The face of the woman she had grown sick of seeing since the day she was born stared back at her.
If there was any difference between them, it was this: unlike the elegant smile and strangely seductive eyes reflected in the ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) mirror she knew so well, the girl before her now possessed anxious eyes clouded with unease and dry, chapped lips.
After glaring at her own reflection with dissatisfaction, Talia turned toward her nursemaid.
“How do I look?”
“Like an angel itself.”
The nursemaid, who had been tirelessly brushing her hair, smiled until her eyes curved into crescents.
“Your Highness truly resembles Lady Senevier so much. Dressed up like this, you look exactly like her at eighteen.”
Talia slapped away the plump hand playing with her hair.
The nursemaid’s thoughtless habit of treating resemblance to someone else as praise irritated her beyond measure.
“That’s enough brushing. Just bring me the dress.”
With the face of a puppy kicked underfoot, the nursemaid waddled over to the chest.
Talia watched her with displeasure.
How could someone be so dull-witted?
After grunting and digging around inside the chest, the woman carefully lifted out a crimson satin dress and glanced at Talia for approval.
“Look at this. It’s the dress Lady Senevier wore when she first entered the Imperial Palace. She must have prepared it specially for Your Highness.”
A weary expression crossed Talia’s face.
“You even remember what Mother wore that long ago?”
“Of course I do! How could I ever forget that day? Lady Senevier didn’t seem human at all. I nearly cried just realizing someone so beautiful could exist in this world. Even His Majesty the Emperor couldn’t take his eyes off her.”
The nursemaid sighed dreamily, as though reliving a beautiful fantasy.
Talia swallowed a bitter laugh.
Did this woman truly believe the meeting between those two had been some legendary romance?
At the time, the Emperor already had an Empress he had shared six years of marriage with. Worse still, she had been close to giving birth.
The meeting between Senevier and the Emperor had been nothing more than a sordid affair.
Even after the former Empress Bernadette died and Senevier became the official Empress, people had never forgotten.
As long as she existed, no one would ever forget the shameless sin they had committed.
Suppressing the sarcasm rising into her throat, Talia snatched the dress from the nursemaid’s hands.
“If you have time to babble nonsense, finish dressing me.”
“Of course. I’ll take care of everything.”
The nursemaid helped her into the beautiful velvet bliaut.
As she arranged her hair, Talia looked into the mirror once more.
Wearing her mother’s dress made her resemble Senevier even more.
Was that dangerously heavy aura of sensuality beginning to bloom inside her as well?
Talia stared fixedly at the upper curve of her breasts beginning to rise above the deeply cut square neckline.
No one could call it dignified.
But no one could deny it was devastatingly alluring.
Out of habit, Talia lifted her fingers toward her lips, then quickly lowered them again, worried she might ruin her makeup.
Tonight, more than anyone else, she wanted to look beautiful.
If possible, she wanted to be even more beautiful than her mother.
I want everyone to look at me.
I want no one to look at Aila.
A fierce hunger glimmered in the dark blue eyes reflected in the mirror.
It was not the sort of gaze an Imperial Princess should possess.
It was the gaze of a starving beggar scavenging in the streets.
Talia grabbed the candlestick sitting atop the table and mercilessly smashed it into the woman in the mirror.
With a deafening crash, spiderweb-like cracks spread across the surface.
The nursemaid, who had been arranging the hem of her dress, gasped and collapsed onto the floor.
Throwing the candlestick aside, Talia said coldly,
“I’m sick of that mirror. Bring me a new one.”
The nursemaid looked up at her with a pale face before silently pressing her lips together and standing again.